New Spring
by GreenBinderGirl
Summary: [Shikamaru x Sakura] Sakura is sitting on a bench, just thinking, and Shikamaru joins her.


**Quick Author's Notes: **I never thought the day would come when I wrote a fanfic about _Sakura_, of all people. But I really like her in the Shippuden—she rocks! XD This takes place sometime during the time-skip. Hurray?

**New Spring**

Sakura fingered the white cherry blossom in her lap, freshly plucked from the tree above her. In a couple of days it would be withered, unless she put it in water. Sakura knew much about flowers. She pushed back a strand of hair that strayed past her forehead protector and slumped back against the wooden bench. It was a clear, beautiful spring day—after months of being sickly and dead, the grass was once again bright and alive with life. The grass glowed brilliant green, and Sakura could see a couple of ants scurrying around near her feet. Once, a long time ago, she had feared ants. That was before she became a ninja and had to _sleep_ with ants, during those terribly frequent missions when they could not afford to bring a tent along.

Sakura sighed. It was indeed a beautiful day. A "Shikamaru" day, as Ino would call it, which meant that on days like these Shikamaru could be found lying on his favourite hill watching his favourite clouds. Sakura found herself looking up at the clouds as well.

_Heh. That one looks like a bowl of ramen,_ she thought. _I've really been hanging out with Naruto too much._

The "bowl of ramen" cloud merged with another. Sakura's grin faded.

_And that…that looks like the Uchiha clan symbol._

A few minutes passed. The "Uchiha clan symbol" cloud now looked—to Sakura—like the Sharingan. _Sasuke's_ Sharingan. Sakura shuddered, remembering that bloodthirsty look, the pure evil glowing in his eyes, thin tendrils of black crawling up his arms…

_NO. Don't think about that. I told you not to think about Sasuke-kun—about Sasuke anymore._ "Inner Sakura" scolded her quietly.

Sakura started picking apart the cherry blossom, gently pulling on the pure pinkish-white petals and watched them float to the ground. The tiny black ants on the pavement scrambled to get out of the way of the falling flowers. Sakura giggled lightly, and then stopped with surprise. It's been so long since that had happened.

"Hey," she heard a familiar, lazy voice called. Nara Shikamaru walked up to her and pointed to the bench. "Is anyone sitting there?"

"Huh? Oh, no, go ahead." Sakura quickly scooted over. Shikamaru plopped down and sighed, running a hand through his ponytail.

"Ugh. How troublesome."

"What is?" Sakura started to say, but then realized that something was off. "Hey—how come you aren't cloud-watching? It's the perfect day."

"_That's_ what's troublesome," Shikamaru grumbled. "I had a mission today, a really tiring and boring one. And now if I try to lie down in the grass, I would fall asleep, and then the whole day would be wasted and ruined."

Sakura laughed and Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.

"What's so funny?"

"The way you talk—you act as if it'd be the end of the world if you can't just laze around and watch the clouds all day." She twirled a petal between her fingers. "When…it wouldn't be."

Shikamaru scoffed. "Whatever. I just don't like how missions take me away from my favourite activities…" He trailed off and toed one of the fallen cherry blossom petals with his sandal. "Humph."

"You sound so immature, you were like—" Sakura stopped. The happy gleam in her bright green eyes slowly dissipated, and she frowned again.

The way Shikamaru had silently complained—it reminded her of Sasuke, way back when they were young, and Sasuke had pouted (he would never admit to having _pouted_, but he did) about being paired with Naruto for training. She remembered his exact look, his exact movements, and the small "Humph!" he'd made.

"Let me take a guess," Shikamaru said slowly, placing a mocking finger to his chin. "_I_ was acting immature, which made you remember _Uchiha_ _Sasuke_ when he was twelve."

"Oh—yeah," Sakura said, a little surprised and guilty for so much emotion being shown on her face. Shikamaru shrugged.

"It happens all the time. Ino."

Sakura nodded and blushed lightly. "W-Well…okay, then."

Shikamaru didn't reply. He settled his hands on his stomach and closed his eyes. "So _troublesome_…I'm missing the best part of the day, too…and I'm hungry…"

_He's just full of complaints, isn't he?_ Sakura thought almost fondly. _Heh, all those times Ino called me complaining about _Shikamaru's _complaints…_

They sat in silence for about ten more minutes. Sakura had picked all the petals on her cherry blossom and gently placed the stem in the grass, to be devoured by bugs later. Shikamaru was so still she was afraid that he really had fallen asleep—until she saw his eyelids flutter open as she carefully rested her hand on his.

"Want to get some ramen?" Sakura offered. "My treat."

"I'm not a huge ramen fan, but anything sounds good at the moment," Shikamaru said, straightening himself up. He stood and helped Sakura up, pulling her by their still-connected hands.

"Well, come on then," he said coyly. Sakura laughed, a real, _real_ laugh.

**Author's Notes:**

For all y'all going, "Why the hell would Sakura go eat ramen with someone she hardly knows? Is she a whore or sumfin'?" My answer? Yes, she's a whore. :P No, I'm just kidding. For the purpose of this story I made it so that Shikamaru and Sakura were a little closer—I mean, come on, Ino is Sakura's best friend and Shikamaru is like Ino's best guy friend, so…yeah! XD

It works, dun argue with teh author, bitches.


End file.
